BATTLEFIELD OF THE FUTURE

BATTLEFIELD OF THE FUTURE
warfare between two belligerent nations . During the recent
border dispute between Ecuador and Peru, Ecuador used the
Internet to publish government bulletins and excerpts from
local media to tell its side of the conflict . In retaliation, Peru
Internet used a gopher site in an attempt to neutralize
Ecuadorian propaganda . [A gopher is an information system
residing on the Internet that knows where everything is and,
through an arrangement of nested menus, allows a user to
continue choosing menu items until the sought-after subject
is located . 79] The resulting verbal skirmish left both nations
working to set up their own gophers .8°
Global information systems will enable ordinary users to
access an extraordinary number of databases, far beyond the
Internet capability of today (which is more than a million files at
databases located at universities and corporate research
centers) . New software technologies permit these accesses to be
conducted autonomously, using "self-navigating data drones ."
These drones, referred to as "knowbots," are released into the
Internet and search for information on their own . They can roam
from network to network, clone themselves, transmit data back
to their origin, and communicate with other knowbots .8 l Given
this capability, one has to wonder, and perhaps be concerned,
about the potential for unauthorized, or at least undesirable,
access to certain databases and computer activities .
Hackers routinely attempt to get into US military systems .
During the Gulf War, hackers from Denmark, Moscow, and Iraq
tried to penetrate these systems .82 Our awareness of these
attempts does not necessarily prove there were no successes of
which we are unaware . And, even if they failed during that
conflict, can we guarantee the security of our systems during the
next war?
These vulnerabilities were revealed recently when a British
teenager using a personal computer at his home hacked his way
into a US military computer network, gained access to files
containing sensitive communications relating to the dispute
with North Korea over international inspections of its nuclear
program, and, after reading them, placed them on the Internet.
His actions made those files available to about 35 million
people . Officials suspect he had access to these computers for
weeks, perhaps even months, before he was caught .
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